ZOMATO INTRODUCES PAID PERIOD LEAVE POLICY IN INDIA
Perhaps one day it will be standard policy for companies to allow female and transgender employees to take paid days off for menstrual pain. Until then, companies like Zomato will get a lot of credit for blazing a trail.
The food delivery firm, which employs 4,000 people in India, has announced that they’ll be eligible for up to 10 days of period leave a year.
“There shouldn’t be any shame or stigma attached to applying for a period leave,” Deepinder Goyal, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement to employees. “You should feel free to tell people on internal groups, or emails that you are on your period leave for the day.”
As The New York Times reported, Zomato’s period leave policy drew applause from social media users and women’s rights advocates.
“It’s a really progressive move; it’s long overdue,” said journalist Rituparna Chatterjee, who is also communications director at Ungender Legal Advisory, an Indian organization that helps companies make their workplaces more inclusive.
Zomato will allow employees to apply for period leave through a human resources portal, and has created a team to investigate any harassment targeting employees taking time off.
“There are an enormous number of menstruators who work in the unorganized labor sector as domestic workers, and no houses give them a day off when they have their periods,” Chatterjee told the Times. “This conversation should happen so this gets normalized.”
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